By Mary Sheffield
On April 13 Guyer’s AP Environmental Sciences classes will be partnering with Redwood Materials and the Pilot Knob Rotary Club (PKRC) to aid in the recycling of lithium ion batteries.
The event will be held in Guyer’s B lot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There you will drop off any lithium ion batteries you have. You can hand in just the batteries or, if the batteries are hard to remove, the entire device. The goal of this event is to help bring awareness and aid in saving the environment.
“We have a limited time to turn things around and protect our world,” said PKRC member Mike Weaver. There are many negative effects that come with lithium ion batteries. One of the main ones being the mining process to obtain the minerals used to create these batteries.
One of the most used methods to mine these resources is brine extraction. This process involves pumping salt rich water to the surface and into a series of evaporation ponds. Though it may get the needed resources, it has more negative effects than good.
“This method takes up large geographic areas and leaves toxic dust, endangering populations,” said Weaver. Recycling your old batteries leads to a decreased need to mine these materials, in turn helping the environment. There are also many negative effects that come with the actual waste of the batteries.
When these batteries are not properly thrown away they end up in landfills. While sitting in these landfills the batteries are at risk of shorting which can cause uncontrollable fires that put people and the environment at risk. These fires are hard to control due to the fact that the materials used to create these batteries can possibly ignite again even hours after the original fire has been put out. These negative effects serve as further motivation to recycle your batteries even after the event has been held.
“Some Home Depot locations accept lithium batteries as does the city landfill,” said Weaver. “Redwood Materials continues to accept them also and will pay for shipping cost.”
For more information on the event please look at the flier below!
Check out Redwood Materials and PKRC!
Redwood: https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/
